The 'Invisible Violence' that haunts India

The Maoists, in order to make inroads into a Bihar village, decided to terrorise the villagers by murdering one of the most respected men in that area.

One afternoon, about 200-300 Maoist cadres descended on their target's home. Ignoring the wails of his wife and children, they carried him to the nearby fields and beheaded him.

The police did come in to investigate, but they could do nothing to remove the terror from the minds of the villages. Some of the inherently criminal elements amongst the villagers joined the Maoist ranks. Nobody in the village could thereafter question the Maoist writ.

In the next 10 years, these very Maoist cadres met their cruel end at the hands of their comrades. One of them was cut into pieces for hobnobbing with the rival leftist group.

Yet another committed suicide after some of his comrades on a night patrol came to his house and molested his wife.

A few years later, another cadre, who committed a murder at the behest of the Maoists, managed to reach the nearby police station. He died there, but not before handing over a note that said he had drunk poison due to atrocities perpetrated upon his son, also a Maoist.

Image:Villager Kari Devi weeps as she sits in front of her burnt out home in Phulwaria, some 200kms south-east of Patna, on February 18, 2010, after a massacre by Maoists. Picture copyright AFP. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.